Ann: Apache farms-in to coastal and eastern deser, page-23

re: Ann: Apache farms-in to coastal and easte... Speculator

"Some may still be wondering why APACHE...APACHE and Chevron have some big projects J/V, so the link would seem to be there for later on."

Yes, first of all, Chevron looks to find gas (and oil) everywhere in Australia; off-shore (Carnarvon Basin, etc.) and on-shore (Cooper). Apache is the JV partner of large off-shore projects as well.

As you explained Apache is not going fishing just for fun, they do it for catching big fishes.

This is from Buru's latest anns. about Apache;
"Apache Energy .... is one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world. With a presence in Western Australia for more than 20 years, Apache Energy is now one of Australia’s most significant producers of oil and gas, and the most active offshore explorer over the past 10 years. Apache has interests in more than 31,000 square kilometres (7.8 million acres) of offshore acreage, including exploration permits and production licences, predominantly in the Exmouth and Carnarvon Basins offshore Western Australia.

So, there are very positive signs in this farmin agreement for the future of on-shore Canning basin even though it could take couple of years to see the results.

The potential oil prospectivity of Canning Basin is not new for the big players. They put the ruler on every parts of the world nearly half a century ago. But they preferred to drill the wells in the easier basins first. The Canning basin was not an easy location at that time.

They found gas and oil in many basins of Australia. But not in Canning. See the map below. And try to see the missing part of the puzzle. Source: Click here

Let's put the missing part there.
Yes, it's canning Basin in deed.

Canning is the missing part on that map as it is also supported by the Larapintine Seaway Theory (My old post regarding to this theory -> Click here)


If you look at what is happening in OFF-SHORE CANNING BASIN, you would see that Woodside will start a huge exploration activity in Feb 2014, it will be in between Browse Basin and Carnarvon Basin (not marked in red yet).

Woodside has already signed a 2-year, $442 million contract to Transocean Inc. to lock in a rig for a drilling campaign in the outer Canning basin offshore Western Australia. Here is my post about this news in NSE threads: Source: Click here

A lot of other maps also show the prospectivity of Canning;

Here is the famous map of EIA/US;

Here is a map from Geoscience Australia;

Some of o&g explorers including some majors also drilled some wells in Canning Basin but they preferred to drill the coastal and nearby areas first. They couldn't find anything serious. They found the Goldwyer sourced oil (Ordovician age) in those areas and became aware that there was a working petroleum system in Canning. That was a very important starting point and a good reason for spending more money. But they never could find the source rocks. When they realised that the source of the oil could be the Kidson sub-basin, they couldn't do anything as that area was already taken by NSE which was a private company with good relations and links to WA government.

See the white bordered area in the graphic below (you can compare it with my other graphic above to see the permits). There was no well, which was targeting Ordovician Goldwyer formation, drilled inside this area since NSE's Gibb Maitland-1 well. (Even Nicolay was drilled at the edge).

I believe that especially the Crossland platform – EP-477 permit areas - (after the very special structure of Sahara Shelf) should be the most prospective area as it was the beaches where the organic matter was accumulated in Goldwyer shales by the oceanic waves (from NW to SE) and the deltaic fresh water organic matters was also accumulated in the same beaches and lagoons. Many carbonate built up reservoirs should have been evolved because of this beach, reef, shelf structures.

I have no hope from the coastal permits but still, I should be wrong if an experienced company pays $25 for them, there should be high hopes for the oil there (no gas I think).

However, You can see on the graphic above (this was an old graphic posted long time ago on NSE threads) the oil generated in the Kidson sub-basin and migrated towards to Crossland Platform and Broome platform. It is my idea that the oil which was found on Broome platform in many wells like Looma and Pictor, was migrated through the very thin formation -especially Nita- from Kidson sub-basin. They might be found and some traps but I think it is very little chance as the trend of the main fault system is at the same direction and there is not much obstacles to stop the oil migration even towards to Cyrene-1 well. (The oil can migrate 300km through the thin formation layers like this, there are many examples of it in the world). Even the oil which was seen Dodonea and Mirabella wells at the north of Barbwire terrace most probably coming from the Crossland Platform as there is a very little channel which connects these two structures (it can be even see on the little green arrow showing towards the barbwire terrace)

However there are many different type of trap style structures on the Crossland Platform on EP-477 permits of Buru. ( I have their maps form NSE’s 2008 Prospectus, but I am not giving them here as I have already put too many maps here –Sorry!). They should be found by the seismic work and drilled. When one is found it will be much bigger than Ungani I believe.
Buru is definitely going in the right direction and there is nothing to scare of it. I believe it is a much better investment than putting the money in the bank for interest. But it will take time in deed. Same for NSE but looks much smaller and riskier than Buru (just for now though!)